Reviews

LOVE YOURSELF

This is a surprisingly nuanced rom-com that utilizes a sci-fi premise to explore modern beauty standards. It follows Su Chengcheng, an ordinary girl who finds a high-tech bracelet that allows her to change her appearance into several different 'beautiful' personas. Tan Jianci as the ML IS FANTASTIC. He plays a nerdy yet sincere character who keeps falling for Su Chencheng's various avatars, unaware that they are all the same person. It's genuinely funny, especially the absurd ways her personas have to disappear when her bracelet needs an update.

Moreover, the drama explores how we curate ourselves. Just like Su Chegcheng uses the bracelet to become the beautiful Su Miao or the professional Dr. Fang Jin, people in real life use social media filters to create idealized personas. This shows that when we spend too much time behind a filter, we start to alienate our true selves, like the FL who eventually realizes that while her personas get more attention, they aren't living her life; she is just a ghost haunting her own successes.

Also, this drama doesn't shy away from the reality that beauty makes life easier. As Su Miao, the FL gets job offers and social grace that she never received as her ordinary self. It critiques a society that rewards a solidified orsingle standard of beauty. This drama specifically highlights a 'big speech' the Fl gives to a cosmetics company, challenging the idea that a woman's value is determined solely by her aesthetic appeal. The ML Tang Qi falls for multiple versions of the FL without knowing they are the same person. This creates a fascinating psychological angle. The drama asks, 'Do we love a person, or do we love the projection of who we want them to be?' Tang Qi's journey is about realizing that he wasn't falling for different faces; he was falling for the same soul ( The FL's kindness, humor, and courage), regardless of the 'skin' she was wearing.

Lastly, by the end of the series, the leads start a beauty brand called ' Chirping Birds'. Instead of selling perfection, they promote natural and confident real beauty. True confidence doesn't come from hiding flaws, but from the hard work and authenticity required to pursue one's dreams as they are. The 'filter' wasn't just on her face; it was on her mindset. Once she stopped herself as 'not enough', she didn't need the bracelet anymore.

This drama was the hidden gem of 2025 that leaves you thinking about self-acceptance. I recommend it (‾◡◝)

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Frustratingly fine ?

If you’re like me and you care about emotional intimacy, devotion, being let into the couple’s relationship, and not having to sit through endless cringe before anything meaningful happens — this drama is going to test your patience. Hard. I finished it, but I was annoyed for most of the ride.

LIKES:
-The music is cute and honestly one of the few consistently pleasant things about the show.
-The cast is strong, which is the only reason I didn’t fully rage-quit early on.
-Once they finally get together, the chemistry improves and the drama becomes watchable.
-I did appreciate the more realistic conversations about marriage, pressure, and expectations — in theory.
-The second half is clearly better than the beginning, which made me understand why people like this drama… even though I still don’t love it.

DISLIKES:
-The female lead is written as painfully naive, clingy, and lacking self-respect — not in a cute way, not in a sympathetic way, but in a secondhand-embarrassment way.
There are cute versions of naive characters. She is not that version. She makes me cringe.
-She has no dignity. People clearly don’t want her, don’t choose her, don’t treat her well — and she keeps forcing herself into their lives anyway. The pool auction scene incident made me furious. She chased a man who treated her like trash, got herself arrested, humiliated herself, and still didn’t learn anything from it.
-No self-control, no dignity, no backbone. Just constant bad decisions followed by crying. She gets drunk, causes problems, has zero self-esteem, and somehow the drama wants me to root for this behavior. I couldn’t.
-The early episodes are so slow it felt like a chore. I was bored, irritated, and not emotionally invested at all.
-I disliked almost every character at the start, which made it hard to care where the story was going.
-The barista situation completely turned me off — making out with someone else while acting emotionally invested elsewhere felt gross and careless.
-The tone is way too silly and childish for a drama that wants to talk seriously about marriage.
-I came in expecting devotion and emotional growth, and instead got chaos, immaturity, and nonsense for way too long.
-A big part of my frustration is that this drama was overhyped to me by chatgpt, which made the disappointment worse.
-This is one of those shows where finishing it made me feel relieved, not satisfied.

CONCLUSION:
I didn’t absolutely hate this drama, but I also don’t understand the hype. It has moments, and the second half improves, but the beginning is rough, frustrating, and emotionally empty for far too long. I’m glad I finished it, but I would never randomly start it again.
For me, this is a 6/10 — not awful, not great, and very dependent on mood. If you’re sensitive to cringe, humiliation arcs, and characters with no self-respect, this will probably irritate you more than entertain you.

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Love and family. What more do you need?

If you’re like me and you care about warmth, emotional intimacy, found family, quiet devotion, and romance that grows naturally instead of being shoved down your throat, this drama is absolutely for you.
I came into this not expecting much beyond something “nice,” and it completely wrecked me in the best way. This is one of those dramas that feels like you’re not watching characters — you’re living alongside them.

LIKES
— The warmth. I don’t even know how to explain it properly. It’s the kind of warmth that settles into your chest and stays there.
— The sibling dynamic is unbelievably real. Their chemistry is so natural it genuinely feels like you’re watching actual siblings grow up together.
— I love how the male lead is written. He’s not cold, not standoffish, not emotionally unavailable. He’s kind, observant, worried, gentle — and that alone already sets this drama apart.
— The way romance is handled is so respectful. When he likes her, he’s straightforward. No games, no dragged-out nonsense, no dramatic internal monologues.
— The female lead is emotionally generous. She loves her friend, supports her, welcomes her into her space
— The forced proximity turning into neighbors was such a natural progression, and I loved how quietly that tension built.
— The emotional arcs hit hard. The dad breaking down, the boys leaving, the separation — I cried for hours.
— The transitional episodes were devastating in the best way. They didn’t rush the pain or sanitize it.
— The ending made complete sense. Everything came together naturally, not conveniently

DISLIKES
— I did wish the romance picked up a little sooner. Around episode 8, it briefly felt like it was slowing down.
— The chemistry, while good, wasn’t explosive — I wanted just a tiny bit more intensity between them.

FINAL THOUGHTS
This drama feels thought out. Every choice feels intentional. Nothing feels wasted. It’s rare to see a story that balances romance, family, grief, and healing this well without losing its emotional core.
I genuinely can’t rate this lower than a 10/10.
Maybe a 9.9 if I’m being picky — but emotionally? This was a perfect watch for me.
This is one of those dramas that reminds you why you love K-dramas in the first place.

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poise & pain

I felt like I was being suffocated right alongside Saori because she is just a walking, open wound for two hours. Satomii just let herself be ugly and it felt so painfully real. She is frantic and aggressive and looks like she hasn't brushed her hair since Miu vanished. I didn't see a single shred of poise left in her. I saw a woman being eaten alive by the fact that she was at a concert when her kid went missing and the internet will not let her forget it for a second. Watching her scroll through comments from trolls who decided she deserves this pain was devastating. I could feel every ounce of her self loathing.

"If I don't read them, it is like she has already been forgotten. This is the only place people are still talking about her."

I think she feels so dangerously authentic because Satomii doesn't try to make her grief look cinematic or poetic. It is just heavy and exhausted and mean. I felt the weight of her emotions in the way she breathes and the way her voice cracks when she is screaming at people who are just trying to help. She made me feel that desperation as if it was my own life falling apart. The media in this was actually nauseating for me to watch because of how they egg her on when she is at her lowest point. I can't get that scene out of my head where she actually proposes holding a birthday party for Miu and the news crew just leans into it because they know it will make for a pathetic sensational shot. I could see Yutaka absolutely hating the idea but he is so drained that he just stands there while they light the candles.

"I feel like I'm already dead. I'm just moving because I have to find her."

It broke my heart to see her so desperate to keep her daughter's face on TV that she starts performing her own grief for the cameras just to keep the search from dying out. I felt like Yutaka trying to be the stoic anchor just felt like abandonment to her and I watched their house become a pressure cooker where they just end up lashing out at each other in the dark. The brother Keigo is obviously another part that really got to me. He was the last person seen with the girl and because he is socially awkward he becomes a target. Seeing Saori turn her rage on him because she needs someone to blame and I think it shows how a tragedy like this just fractures a family until there is nothing left.

I was completely captivated by the way Satomii inhabits this specific, haunting brand of misery. I saw her standing in that yellow crossing guard vest at the end and it just gutted me. There is no magic resolution. She is just there in the street protecting other people's kids while hers is still gone. It is a quiet and miserable kind of strength. I felt like she was forcing me to sit in the wreckage with her until the very last frame.

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it truly shines beautifully

My highly anticipated Shine On Me... thank you for being the last sense of warmth of my 2025 and the first ray of light of my 2026!

As I said, I highly anticipated this drama from the beginning so it could only go insanely well or insanely bad. Luckily, it never once disappointed me despite some annoying side characters – they only made me root for my beloved characters even more; it's part of life and part of the story.

Song Weilong and Zhao Jinmai are the perfect Lin Yusen and Nie Xiguang. I loved them more each episode. They are dramatic without being over the top, they are funny in a way that feels effortlessly and they seem to truly like and respect each other which, believe me, it's really important for the dynamic of their characters. Once they start their relationship you really feel like they're a couple, even in small details.

As for the story, their plot begins with a misunderstanding that doesn't take long to be halfway cleared but even before that their dynamic is not annoying, in fact it feels kinda amusing. The story mainly revolves around the main couple and their ways of learning more about each other, themselves and learning to let go. If you're going into Shine On Me with an open heart, you can definitely learn a thing or two or at least reflect about life related stuff you might already know. Most of the support characters are really nice, even making me wish to see more of some of them. Some are just painfully annoying but we all encounter some of those in real life, right? We can survive them.

Some aspects of their professional life might be boring for some, but honestly I wouldn't give that too much attention and it kinda makes you understand their personal growth as well by the end. The writers really put an effort in ending the drama in a satisfying way for the fans of the couple (once again, remember this is a romance drama!) that actually made me (happily) surprised!

The visuals (despite some funny cgi, but to be honest if you're not new to cdramas you've seen worse) are beautiful and you can see the drama crew really put a lot of thought in every scene, especially those that are meant to be highlighted. The original soundtrack is now among my favorite ones ever (thumbs up for Zhang Hao he did AMAZING)!!!!!

All of that to say thank you Shine On Me for being with me for this couple of weeks and yes, everyone should check it out if it fits the genre you usually like to watch. Don't expect excessive drama, power struggles, lots of action scenes or anything like that. There's a reason everything in this drama revolves around finding light and it broadcasted in winter (holidays season even).

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It's hard to put into words

Disclaimer

What I am writing here are my views and thoughts about this series. Some of you may not like it. That does not give you the right to try to come at me with your opinions on why this series should get a higher or lower score and why it is better/worse than I think it is. You have your own opinions, and I have mine. Kindly respect that.

I am seeing a lot of people saying this, and I agree with them – this series is hard to rate. I mean, I finished this series in January 03, and I am now rating it on January 07. It did carry us on a journey, but the characters, oh, the characters. They had flaws that made me hate them as well as having me ask questions like, 'Why would they do that?' But, oh, I was entertained! Fan Xiao is a black flag. The things that he did to You Shu Lang are highly questionable, but he says that he does it for love.

I like the character of You Shu Lang in the beginning, as I feel proud of the way he handles things once he sees the true colours of Fan Xiao. But there is so much he can take of him as Fan Xiao keeps testing him. I honestly did not know how to think about Fan Xiao, as he did change his ways in the end. But was it a little too late? Was what he did previously too much to just be forgiven like that? I personally felt so. But I guess You Shu Lang wanted happiness in the end, and I guess seeing Fan Xiao change over these past few months made him personally feel he deserved a second chance.

All in all it was an entertaining show that carried me on a journey. I may not agree with how some of the things were handled in the final episode but I will agree that these two characters have made an impressionable impact on me with thier story.

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One of my first ever Thai drama and I will always go back to it

to start off this drama was really nice like everything makes sense. The chaos was chaos. Their love was loving, but the thing that just makes me laugh. A bit is how the age gap he like left for like I don’t know how many years, but came back looking the same like literally but as for the female lead, she literally grew and you can tell because there was two different person playing the main lead. I mean like his action and I don’t know style changed like you can tell he grew up but I just wished they made it look more like he grew up and not just grow up. I don’t know if that makes sense but it makes sense to me so but after all, it was really good the mom absolutely love the Auntie love her too the mean girl she played a good role like everything needed to be solved from her second lead. yay they got together. They were accepted, but poor girl who committed suicide just so people can know her innocence like it was quite scary for me, but not scary to the point where like I cannot handle it like when I rewatch it I just skip the beginning and like get to the part where mean girls is coming back to city to watch over main guys sick mother I really feel bad for a mean girls grandma too like she had a short role but then like every drama of her as a grandma like I absolutely love. but this drama was really nice re-watching worthy. also, the song for like the second or third lead I don’t know how you would put them as but it was really good like I love that song like it just feels so lovely like I would love to slow dance with my lover with it one day.

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One of the BEST revenge plots + subtle BL

This may or may NOT contain spoilers, depending on how you perceive it. However, I won't spoil the story; I'll just share a few character interactions and my thoughts on it.

*Story Plot*
-INCREDIBLE in my opinion. The scheming and plotting are mind-blowing because it's not just some basic revenge plot, NAH the female lead used "legal methods" to slowly kill those who conned her and disguised herself as someone who, on the outside, is being helpful but on the inside is trying to get the criminals to slowly destroy each other.
If you've seen it, you know how elaborate the plan is.
What made me so angry is how the bad guys got away easily just because they could LIE. One of the characters IMO has serious brain damage to believe in their lies after being tricked by them several times.
-Tagged FL turned evil, she really showed who's BOSS and saw through the revenge plot to the end, even when her family members told her to stop. Eventually, FL - Mei realized that the revenge wasn't worth this much loss and decided to face the consequences. The lakorn hints at concepts of morality and forgiveness (no, this isn't AI-generated), not for the sake of others but for our own happiness. The ending was humane and ended perfectly (although it would have been nice to see those two get married).

*Characters/Acting*
-The acting was really good, freaking Nisa (main antagonist) really got on my nerves when she was skeptical of literally everything and everyone. Can't underestimate how horrible a person she could get. But Foei, her husband, gave me chills because when he got what he deserved, his acceptance of his faith was sad to watch, and when he cried and smiled for the first time after receiving forgiveness, I cried. I guess that's what makes us human. It shows that even if it's justified punishment, when you see the criminals in pain and writhing under the weight of their crimes, you can't help but feel sorry for them.
-IMO, the male lead (Cho) could have been expressed better as a character. He didn't get major character development like the FL. Basically, he tried to find out the answers to all the odd things that have been happening just to be spoon-fed the answers to him LOL. But he did redeem himself at the very end, A+ effort for trying.
-Handsome actors, with subtle BL interactions, were what made this show so unexpected and worth the rewatch. I won't tell you who x who but if you don't like it, interpret it as human compassion, brotherhood, partners in action, whatever u feel like.

Overall: I love this lakorn, really enjoyed watching it with my mom and seeing the bad guys die in horrific ways too. Worth the rewatch in the future when my memory starts to fade. Hope you enjoyed this :)

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Chocolate skin baddie gets cock blocked by sexy red head

It has been 3 years, and I have finally finished this show. Uh, yeah, lots of feelings, and they aren't positive. I would give it a 7 (8.3) out of 10. I am gonna say what I liked, what I didn't, and then an episode overview (this is a pretty short review because this show does not give me a lot to work with).

James and Net are both good-looking and great actors. They both did well in this. The mom's character. Till the very end, she was terrible, and I loved that. Her son got molested, assaulted, groomed, and she didnt believe him every single time, and that was good fucking character writing, because so many parents actually do this to their kids, and it is terrible. And that's it, the show is long, but there is not a whole bunch that happened in this.

UEA CHARACTER HAS POTENTIAL TO BE GREAT. And then they one oversexualized the FUCK OUT OF HIM and two babbied him. Awful character writing on that part. I think they played into the fact that James is good-looking a little too much, especially with the way they oversexualized him, especially with Net's character; it felt very like victim-blaming, I can't lie. Like because he is oversexualized, he deserves what happened to him, like that was just all off. Just terrible. And the babying. He got assaulted, I understand why he shuts down, but they treated him like he could never move on, never get over it, and that lowkey pissed me off. Bad character writing for a character that could have been otherwise great. JUST BECAUSE WE ARE BOTH HOT DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE GOOD CHEMISTRY. And I am not just saying that because they are no longer a pair. These two don't have chemistry, I can't lie to you. ZERO CHEMISTRY. Like I can't, they are just so awkward, and most sex scenes felt out of place and like Uea is forcing himself to be with King, and that goes back into oversexualizing him, fuck ass show. The start was terrible. They jumped the gun too fast, and the plot buildup was god awful, and that set the tone for a show with so much fucking filler, it makes you WANNA DIE. DRAG PLOT. It hit episode 6 and became a drag plot. Literally no one cares, let's wrap this shit up. They ran this shit through the mud, with the terrible plot writing and character writing. The romance building was terrible, and I wish they had done it better. Random arranged marriage plot, dude shut the fuck up. GET THESE ADS OUT OF MY FACE, I SWEAR TO GOD. One-dimensional fuck ass side characters. The ending was rushed and mid, and so was the show. So much wasted potential. Okay, that's it.

Overview time, over the span of 3 years. "I feel like I was thrown into the water and couldn't swim. I am giving this show a chance because I have been really excited for it. But so far, I am disappointed. I was really disappointed. There's not enough plot buildup—a full 41 minutes—and I don't know any of the characters." "The scratches were such a good scene." "Just too bad plots on top of each other." "James is gorgeous. TEAR ME TO PIECESSSSS." "Also, we are proposing but have been together for about a year and 20 minutes on screen. Bruh. One-dimensional parent characters, I fear. Oh, I did not know the two shows connected. Rushed mid ending."

People no longer have to pretend this show was heat, because NetJames are in the dirt. I think this is a pretty skippable show. Okay bye!

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Why is this a stigma?

I'm really confused... This is 2025 so Why is being a single dad a bad thing? And why is a woman choosing to be a step mom a bad thing? Why is he beating himself up so bad like he's a terrible person? None of that storyline made sense..

Now onto her. Just.let.him.go Like why does there need to be 50 "break ups"?! All it needed was"Weve grown apart I don't love you anymore let's break up". And OK MAYBE 1 more convo after for closure for the obsessive, overbearing, controlling psycho of an ex who can't let it go. BUT THEN STOP ANSWERING HIS CALLS. OR BLOCK HIM. Like it's simple really...

Lastly, tell me again exactly how they fell in love with each other when they've had exactly 0 dates, 1 hug, and many sad, distraught, rude(from her) conversations. What exactly did he like about her? Every convo she was so rude to him and strung him along and made him feel like the bad guy. My guy you are a walking green flag. You are SUPER hot. Have a great job. A great kind, caring and calm personality. Trust me you can do WAY better than her.

Rant over

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Overall a quite good drama, worth watching if you don't expect something mind-blowing.

To be honest I didn't really want to watch this drama because of the reviews but i was pleasantly surprised. I really think that some people here are too harsh with their opinions about this drama. Okay, it's not oscar-worthy or something really that I've never heard of it's actually pretty cliché but it wasn't that bad.

The plot was okay, I do think that maybe it had too many threads (?) for only 8 episodes because that way we couldn't focus on the "main dish". For example many scenes that were not needed, the first scene with two guys that he asked about the path. The way they were introduced made them seem (at least to me) like they were tae-yi and doyoon.
The bigger problem for me was chemistry, especially with the second couple. For the first 3 episodes I actually was rooting for Seoheon and Doyoon to geth together, and while for the first couple my thoughts changed and I started seeing some sparks between them, the second couple was something that I really didn't want to focus on. And yeah, the first couple had their bad scnes for example the SA scene. It was really useless and uncomfortable for me, I can understand what the director wanted to show but with only 8 episodes it felt like Seoheon forgiven Tae-yi too quickly. It still made me feel like the second couple was worse, I mean Juha literally bullied Doyoon. It wasn't like with the first couple where the violence could have been explained by the trauma, it was just pure hatred. Both couples had one person struggling with internalized homophobia but only one character seem that way — Tae-yi. We could see that he actually was falling for Seoheon, and then after understanding what's happening in the classroom he panicked but we still knew that he had feelings for the other boy. With the second couple it's much more harder to believe, it felt like Juha just randomly thought "oh i might actually like this boy" or even more like he just wanted someone to like him. I felt like Doyoon was even faster to forgive for something he shouldn't be that quick to brush off. It was like the first couple actually loved each other, while the second couple just wanted to have someone love them or at least Juha seem that way.

Other things I liked :
- the kiss in the ep 8, it was surprising to me to see that they actually kissed as it's not that common in korean bls, they rather stay with the awkward duck kisses or just touching their lips.
- the way we actually could feel the dislike between first couple, it still wasn't long enough but it was the best they could do with 8 episodes that also had to contain the second couple.
- the way they showed korean gay relationships, it's not always rainbows and sunset but also the sad part – homophobia, being scared to show your feelings towards your partner because "how will people react" i don't see it that often in bls, especially korean ones so it was also a nice surprise
- the fact that Seoheon wasn't a pushover, I was really afraid that this will happen but he actually stood up for himself in many situations!

things i didn't like :
- in first episodes it felt like Tae-yi only could see his brother in Seoheon, which was kinda weird?
- the cliché, typical thai bl drama concert in the last episode
- the awkward kisses, i really hope we will see less of them in new dramas.

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Watched this so many times already and I will always go back!!!!

when I say this drama is worth the time, I mean it no one will ever understand how much I love this drama. It is the top most best drama I’ve ever watched. and after this absolutely fell in love with P’Nune. Like my heart was achy for this drama when it was time for me to stop and like go to sleep or do stuff I was really dying to watch this drama, and every second was so worth it. The storyline was everything like I did not get bored at all the chemistry the love everything built up and it was amazing. I have no other words to explain this but excellent. this drama is always going to be my recommendation to everyone no matter what because of how good it is like I know I’m just saying it’s really good, but it really is and everyone has to trust me on this. main lead was wonderful. Second lead was cute, but I wasn’t really focusing on them because main lead was killing it. I was just all about main leads. and the faking scenes or whatever it doesn’t really matter to me like I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen fake ones that looked bad and good real kissing like as long as I can feel the romance in between them I feel great and I need nothing else and this drama was really that like it was really cute. I love it so muchhh!

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Strong '90s Visuals, Weak Plot

I recently finished it. The drama was good and just that. I gave it a 7.5 at most, mainly because the plot lacked depth. Some of episodes felt like a filler, you could have skipped a few episodes or fast-forwarded through some scenes and it wouldn't have made any difference. The serie was saved by its 90's visuals, the performances of most of the cast (except the FL), and some genuinely funny moments.

One moment that felt random and isolated to me was when Ma-Jin made misogynistic comments toward Mi-Seon and Tae-Poong did nothing about it. It felt out of character for him. Why would he let Ma-Jin cross the line with her over and over again?

About ML and FL relationship:
I didn't feel any chemistry between the ML and the FL. Junho was incredible, his role reminded me a bit of PSJ in Itaewon Class. It was enjoyable to watch him go through all the situations and problems. However, Kim Minha was COMPLETELY annoying to me. She had the same facial expression for happiness, sadness, surprise, shyness so I couldn’t connect with her character or feel any empathy. It felt the same way when I watched her in 'Pachinko'. I don't dislike her, but maybe she's better suited for other type of roles.

16 episodes were bit too long, it should have been shorter.

P.d.: I’m from Argentina, so I’m very familiar with how terrible IMF involvement can be for a country and its society. The drama portrayed this really well, you can truly feel how hard life becomes for working-class people under such an economic crisis.

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Not perfect, but close

I’m not a fan of baseball or prison stories, so you’d think this drama wouldn’t be for me.

You’d be wrong. It's excellent.

PRISON PLAYBOOK walks a narrow line-sometimes basking in sappy pathos, and at other times careening into hilarious caricature.


The creators of PRISON PLAYBOOK get it mostly right-with a few flubs. Is it always believable? No. But the story is original and entertaining enough for viewers to overlook the relatively few flaws.

Park Hae-Soo nails it as Je-Hyeok, a lovable, honorable lunk-head, who winds up in prison. But shows he has some brains when push comes to shove.

Jung Kyoung-Ho's portrayal of Je-Hyeok's loyal best friend is so convincing and touching that I now want to watch every drama he's ever been in. Another stand-out was Choi Moo-seung. He brought tears to my eyes more than once. What an incredible performer!

Captain Yoo, played by Jung Hae-In, enters this drama as a supposed vicious murderer. Yeah, right. This sweet-faced actor is about as scary as a kitten. In every other drama, he plays the perfect boyfriend - see LOVE NEXT DOOR. Not to worry. He improves throughout--as do most of the others.

A few negatives: Lots of product placement going on-which mostly didn't interfere with the meandering plot. The wrestling and fighting between the cell mates often looked staged. And when Go Park-sa was suddenly rushed out the door, a promising secondary plot involving corporate malfeasance was cut off at the knees. What was that all about?

Soundtrack: When a mournful oboe is wailing in the background or a saccharine piano melody is plucking at our heart strings - additional sound effects interject a note of humor and frivolity (dharma drums, off-key chords), as if to say, "You guys aren't taking all this too seriously, are you?" Nice.

I could have done without the incessant bird whistles.

In a real prison, things aren't quite as benign as presented in this series. Or so I’ve been told.

Here, the seven or eight rotating cell mates-a unique collection of lock-down losers-are all endearing and likable. Most are societal victims. Some get justice, some don't.

Sort of like life.

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